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Treason in Rome
Agrippa obtained another loan, this time a huge loan from a Samaritan freedmen
of Tiberius, which gave Agrippa the ability to pay off his debt to Antonia and
also to impress Gaius with lavish spending. Agrippa made an unwise remark to
Gaius, which was overheard by a servant:
One day these friends were riding out together in a chariot, and Eutychus, a
freedman, was their charioteer. In the course of conversation, Agrippa
enthusiastically stretched out his hands and said confidingly to Caligula that he wished
that old Tiberius would die, that Caius Caligula might assume the purple and
the throne. The freedman, overhearing the remark, reported it to the emperor
Tiberius, who at once peremptorily ordered Agrippa to be put in chains and then
imprisoned for treason. The order was executed, and wearing his robe of
distinction, Agrippa was placed among the criminals of the state.